Nokia 808 PureView Sim only as networks turn their backs on it

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It may have a camera that can blow the competition out of the water, but the Nokia 808 PureView is struggling to find much love from UK operators, with consumers wanting to get hold of the device having to buy the phone Sim free.

All four of the UK’s major networks, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2, have told Pocket-lint that they won’t be stocking the device, as has Virgin Media though reasons for the snub were not given. Three is so far the only network that has neither confirmed nor denied whether it will be selling the Nokia 808 PureView.

O2 told Pocket-lint: “We pride ourselves on offering our customers a range of the best devices on the market. Although we aren’t selling the Nokia PureView, we’re continuing to work with Nokia on future products.”

Meanwhile Vodafone told us: "We aim to offer customers a great choice of devices and constantly review our range to ensure we're meeting our customers' needs. Clearly it's not possible to include every device and we have no current plans to add the Nokia PureView 808 to our smartphone line up."

Virgin Media has also said that there are no current plans to stock the handset, though it is always reviewing its range.

Some are speculating that it’s to do with Nokia’s decision to load the 41-megapixel sensor toting handset with the Symbian Belle operating system, an OS many feel is past its sell-by date, rather than Windows Phone or even Android.

Pocket-lint got to test the camera quality of the handset recently on a day trip to Royal Ascot no less. While it impressed – you can see snaps here including one of the Queen – we’ve always felt that the Nokia 808 PureView was more a concept phone rather a viable product.